Today in my LifeLine counselling lecture, we were being taught about HIV. Although not an expert in any way, I felt quite knowledgeable with regards to this subject. As I sat there, however, I felt like I'd been caught in Middle-Eastern crossfire: constantly bombarded and beaten by facts and statistics, each one more horrific and more painful than the last. And I left with serious amounts of shrapnel embedded in my flesh.
- Approximately 35% of women attending antenatal clinics in KZN are infected with HIV.
- Although the government will prescribe ARVs from a CD4 count of 200 and below, the average CD4 count when patients begin treatment is 95.
- The percentage of global infection of HIV occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa is 80%.
- In 1992 the amount of new infections per day was less than 50. In 2009, it was approximately 1500.
The subject of HIV/AIDS overwhelms me. When I heard and read this, I really cannot see how we, as South Africans, as Africans, as human beings, are going to fix this problem. How or where do we even begin to tackle this?
AIDS might have started as a White, homosexual disease, but I think many people see it as a black disease now. How it is seen, however, is not my immediate concern. I cannot begin to fathom how we're going to educate men, especially the more rural or traditional ones. When you are told "You don't eat a banana with its peel!" how do you convince THAT man to use a condom? I feel that a lot of the HIV/AIDS education is directed at women in the hopes of empowering them...but what's the point of empowering a woman at a clinic if she's a powerless, second-rate citizen at home?
And sadly enough, it is not only good education that makes the difference. I know many private school girls and boys who firmly believe AIDS will never be something they're infected with or affected by! A clear example of how formal education can have nothing to do with real life ignorance.
One thing I do know is that HIV/AIDS does not discriminate. It does not care about your age, race, gender, financial situation. It is the opposite of Apartheid, but, dare I say it, far worse!
